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Deep Fission partners with drilling firm to put nuclear reactors one-mile underground
InnovationGet your news fromINTERESTING ENGINEERINGDeep Fission has partnered with Fort Myers drilling contractor Youngquist Brothers to develop the deep, large-diameter boreholes its Gravity reactor needs, about one mile underground.
A US startup wants to drop a nuclear reactor a mile underground, down a hole just a few feet wide. And it just teamed up with Florida drillers to help dig it.
It’s Deep Fission’s Gravity reactor, a small pressurized water reactor that runs on standard low-enriched uranium and is rated at up to 15 megawatts of electricity.
The company’s concept places the reactor roughly one mile underground in a water-filled borehole, with surrounding rock and water intended to provide functions including containment and cooling.
A mile down, the water in the borehole presses at about 160 atmospheres, roughly what these reactors need to keep water above 300 degrees Celsius from boiling.
So gravity supplies the pressure, the rock replaces a containment dome, and steam carries the heat up to a turbine on the surface.
The drillers, Youngquist Brothers of Fort Myers, have been at it since 1971 and built most of Florida’s deep wastewater injection wells.
On September 3, they lowered a full-size, 20-foot prototype canister about 100 feet down a 34-inch borehole, then pulled it back out using an existing commercial drilling rig.
The canister is 30 inches wide, leaving about two inches on each side. And 100 feet is under 2 percent of a mile. The hard part is holding it all the way down.
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